The considerable increase in average age exposes ever-increasing segments of the population to the risks of developing tumours and chronic degenerative diseases. These conditions constitute one of the most serious health problems for which an effective therapeutic response is not yet currently available, due to the multifactorial causation and the complexity of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in their genesis and development.
Some progress has been made in recent times as a result of stem cell biology studies, from which it emerges that tumour malignancy could be, at least in part, attributable to the presence of altered stem cells (cancer stem-like cells). This finding has directed numerous lines of research on the reprogramming of cancer stem-like cells.
The use of certain growth factors in the cancer stem-like cell reprogramming field and stem cell transplant research has led to the hypothesis that stem cell growth and differentiation factors could also be useful for determining the fate of normal, as well as altered stem cells, regenerating and/or differentiating them.
The present invention originates precisely in this field of scientific research.
A general aim of the present invention is to identify and provide cell growth and differentiation factors that play a key role in stem cell regulation and differentiation and to find an application for these factors in the nutritional and/or medical context. Another aim of the invention is to identify and select biological factors that are produced by the stem cells of fish species in specific stages of embryonic development and to find specific applications in the medicinal context, in particular, in the prevention and/or treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and/or tumoural forms.